The present invention relates to heat-exchanger arrangements in general, and more particularly to heat-exchanger arrangements capable of accomplishing heat transfer between a fluid flowing therethrough and the environment, that is, the ambient atmosphere and/or solar heat beams.
There are already known various heat-exchanger arrangements which accomplish transfer of heat between two flowable media, or which are capable of utilizing solar energy for warming up a fluid flowing through the heat-exchanger arrangement. Such conventional heat-exchanger arrangements usually include a plurality of heat exchange elements or tubes which are preferably provided with external fins to increase the effective heat-exchange area thereof. Such heat exchange elements are provided with at least one internal passage each for the flow of the heat-transfer fluid, that is, the fluid which is circulating in a closed circuit including a user for such a fluid, therethrough. The passages of the heat exchange elements are connected, at their respective ends, with collector pipes for the supply of the heat-transfer fluid into the passages, and for the discharge of the fluid from the passages into the same, respectively.
A heat-exchanger arrangement of this type is known, for instance, from the German petty patent DE-GM No. 80 07 436. In this conventional construction, the collector pipes are provided with longitudinally extending insertion channels, into which there are inserted holding bars that are connected with the heat exchange elements. When the heat-exchanger arrangement is constructed in this manner, it is achieved that the heat exchange elements can be connected to the collector pipes at any arbitrarily selected locations; however, the construction of the connections as well as the mounting of each of the heat-exchange elements on the respective collector pipe involve relatively high costs in terms of material and labor. However, an even more pronounced disadvantage of this conventional construction is that optimum flow conditions cannot be achieved, especially when a plurality of heat-exchanger arrangements or units of this type is connected to one another such that the heat-transfer fluid flows therethrough in succession. This is attributable to the fact that the two collector pipes of the arrangement do not permit a compensation for the pressure differences via corresponding pipe ducts, so that additional pipe conduits are indispensable.